Is Dustin Pedroia Having the Worst Year of His Career?

About the Author

Steve Silva, a lifelong Massachusetts resident, joined Boston.com in 2004. He's covered the world championship runs of the Red Sox, Patriots, Bruins, and Celtics, the Boston Marathon, and more as part of the BDC and Boston Globe sports teams.

Dustin Pedroia has long been a fan favorite in Red Sox Nation primarily because of his grit, hustle, enthusiasm, energy, and leadership... but Sox fans have turned a blind eye to his offensive struggles the past few years.

Last season, Pedroia's power numbers suffered as he battled with a torn ligament in his left thumb. And his aggressive style of defense has been taking a toll on his body year after year.

But while he's essentially been healthy this season, 2014 is shaping up as one of the worst seasons offensively for the Red Sox second baseman. The 30-year-old Pedroia has hit only four home runs in 306 at-bats while batting .268/.338/.382. His .721 OPS is the lowest number Pedroia has put up in the last eight seasons.

According to Justin Havens of ESPN Reasearch via Buster Olney: "Whether he's dealing with an injury yet again is unknown, but the slide in production has continued -- entering Monday's action, Pedroia's batting average (.265), on-base percentage (.336) and slugging percentage (.381) would all be career-worsts if the season ended today."

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The ESPN report also notes that Pedroia is putting fewer balls in the air while seeing fewer of those balls turn into home runs. At the same time, Pedroia sees more pitches in the strike zone than any other hitter in baseball yet he's getting fewer inside pitches to pull.

In his MVP season in 2008, Pedroia put up a .326/.376/.493 line with 17 homers and 83 RBIs. In 2011, Pedroia put up career highs in homers (21) and RBIs (91) while batting .307.